South Carolina v. Katzenbach

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

South Carolina v. Katzenbach 383 U.S. 301 (1966) is a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. It rejected a challenge by the state of South Carolina to the preclearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which required that some states submit changes in election districts to the Attorney General of the United States (at the time, Nicholas Katzenbach).

In his opinion for the Court, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote that the Voting Rights Act was a valid exercise of Congress's power under the enforcement clause of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Justice Hugo L. Black dissented in part.

The decision represents a rare instance of the Supreme Court exercising its original jurisdiction; the case was filed directly in the Supreme Court by the state of South Carolina, rather than being appealed from a lower court.